a little about

Based in London since 1994, art critic Gilda Williams was a longtime London contributor to Artforum (2005-23) and taught art writing as Senior Lecturer on the MFA Curating, Goldsmiths College (2009-23). She has taught at the frieze academy; Sotheby’s Institute of Art; the Ruskin School of Art, Oxford University; and the Guardian’s Masterclass series. 

Her How to Write About Contemporary Art (Thames&Hudson, 2014), now in seven languages, has been described as ‘the little red book everyone in the art world should have’ (Art Monthly, Feb 2015). She has written for The Guardian, Time Out, frieze, Sight and Sound, Art in America, Parkett, Tate etc., Burlington, and more. Edited anthologies include ON&BY Andy Warhol (MIT/Whitechapel; 2016), and The Gothic (MIT/Whitechapel, 2007), on contemporary gothic visual culture.

Williams has given talks worldwide: Tate Modern and Tate Britain; Royal Academy; Serpentine Gallery; the ICA (all London); NYU Abu Dhabi; UCL Qatar; Garage MCA; Moscow; Hangar Bicocca, Milan, and more. In 2020 she was an Evaluator for the Arts Writers Grant Program, The Andy Warhol Foundation | Creative Capital, New York.

From 1994-2005 Williams was Editor and Commissioning Editor (from 1997) for contemporary art for Phaidon Press, London. She has served as a judge on the Max Mara Art Prize for Women Artists (2013); a nominator for the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Awards for Artists (2014); and a judge for the Other Art Fair (2018). Williams was a member of the Whitechapel Gallery Ventures Board (2016-23), and the Advisory Board for the Contemporary Painters series, Lund Humphries art publishers, New York.

Dr. Williams is co-author of The Art Book for Children (Phaidon, 2005; revised 2024) which is translated into ten languages and was awarded an English Association prize for Best Non-Fiction Children’s Book in 2006. 

From 2023 Williams’ main activity is a textile-based studio practice.

contact: info [at] gildawilliams.com

See also Author’s Page, MIT Press; Author’s Page, Thames & Hudson; Author’s Page amazon.co.uk; Contributor’s Page, Artforum, AICA (International Association of Art Critics) Page,  #gildawilliams, #howtowriteaboutcontemporaryart, Tags, frieze.